The invention relates to an antiviral composition and a method of preventing or treating herpes virus, type II in warm-blooded animals with the antiviral composition. More particularly, the invention comprehends an antiviral composition containing alpha,alpha-dialkylethylamine derivatives of adamantane and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier used to treat warm-blooded animals infected with (or to prevent infection with) the herpes virus, type II.
Herpes II is a form of herpes virus that causes a highly infectious venereal disease which is marked by painful lesions in the genital area. In its other forms, herpes causes maladies ranging from common cold sores, chicken pox, and shingles to infectious mononucleosis, and rarer diseases including hepatitis and encephalitis. Reactions to the herpes II infections can range from minor discomfort to incapacitating pain. The disease poses health threats to women and the newborn. There is a high correlation between genital herpes infections and cervical cancer. The newborn child is endangered if birth takes place during an eruptive episode of the disease; there is particular danger to the ocular, labial and genital areas; and skin infections are also common. Blindness and death in the newborn child are not infrequent. Physicians usually resort to delivery of the baby by cesarean section.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,270,036, 3,489,802 and 3,501,511 teach various adamantylamine and adamantylalkylamine derivatives as being useful as hypoglycemic agents and antiviral agents for specific viruses, usually influenza, vaccinia, and arbovirus, but never for herpes. In clinical practice, those adamantyl alkyl amines have shown utility only against influenza viruses and only if treatment is prophylactic; treatment after the infection is ineffective.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,170 teaches adamantylethylamines that are useful as anorexic agents.
No art is known which discloses the use of alpha,alpha-dialkyl adamantylethylamines for the treatment of herpes II or which discloses their utility to treat the virus while the animal is infected.